About the 11 Laws of the Fifth Discipline

Some of these laws have (at times) severely disrupted operation in the companies I worked for, and I guess they are hard (if not impossible) to cherish. My favorite is number 2. Why do so little managers understand this simple concept?

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  1. Today’s problems come from yesterday’s “solutions.”
  2. The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back.
  3. Behaviour grows better before it grows worse.
  4. The easy way out usually leads back in.

About Enjoying Solitude

The ultimate test for the ability to control the quality of experience is what a person does in solitude, with no external demands to give structure to attention. It is relatively easy to become involved with a job, to enjoy the company of friends, to be entertained in a theater or at a concert. But what happens when we are left to our own devices? Alone, when the dark night of the soul descends, are we forced into frantic attempts to distract the mind from its coming? Or are we able to take on activities that are not only enjoyable, but make the self grow?

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Big Data Fuels Intelligence-Driven Security Reviewed

Big data is here to stay. In fact, anything is (and always was) big data per se. Yet in the last couple of years, the challenges in collecting, storing and accessing such tremendous amounts of data have been thoroughly tackled by Cloud computing. Now all one has to do is to find a way to turn that into usable understanding, especially in the field of network security.

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About Amateurs and Dilettantes

There are two words whose meanings reflect our somewhat warped attitudes toward levels of commitment to physical or mental activities. These are the terms amateur and dilettante. Nowadays these labels are slightly derogatory. An amateur or a dilettante is someone not quite up to par, a person not to be taken very seriously, one whose performance falls short of professional standards. But originally, “amateur,” from the Latin verb amare, “to love,” referred to a person who loved what he was doing. Similarly a “dilettante,” from the Latin delectare, “to find delight in,” was someone who enjoyed a given activity. The earliest meanings of these words therefore drew attention to experiences rather than accomplishments; they described the subjective rewards individuals gained from doing things, instead of focusing on how well they were achieving. Nothing illustrates as clearly our changing attitudes toward the value of experience as the fate of these two words. There was a time when it was admirable to be an amateur poet or a dilettante scientist, because it meant that the quality of life could be improved by engaging in such activities. But increasingly the emphasis has been to value behavior over subjective states; what is admired is success, achievement, the quality of performance rather than the quality of experience. Consequently it has become embarrassing to be called a dilettante, even though to be a dilettante is is to achieve what counts most–the enjoyment one’s actions provide.

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